Myanmar garment units face closure due to rising costs

Fourteen factories, mostly garment units, in Yangon’s industrial zones may shut down in the next two months due to rising cost of land and staff. The closure may leave over 3,000 without jobs, according to Daw Sandar Min, Regional Representative in Yangon and chair of the finance, planning and economic affair committee under the Yangon regional legislature.

Rising production costs, particularly wages, is the primary reason behind garment manufacturers are giving up, a top Myanmarese English-language daily quoted U Myint Soe, Chair of Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association, as saying. Earlier this year, the National Committee for the Minimum Wage raised the country’s daily minimum wage by about 30 per cent despite objections from both labour organisations and employers.

Daw Khine Zar Aung, Chair of the Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar (IWFM), said some manufacturers have been forced to move out of the industrial zones because of rising land leases. Seduno (Myanmar) Fashion Company, run by a Chinese investor, closed its factory earlier this month citing low production, the inability to export in time, rising land and factory rentals and higher minimum wages as the main reasons.